Trump admits it was Russians who hacked DNC

He knew. He probably always knew. But he never wanted to admit that. If senior US intelligence leaders had not presented him with such overwhelming evidence of Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee, Pres. elect Donald Trump would most likely continue to say that it was all “rubbish” and an attempt to “delegitimize” him.

Yet at his press conference/campaign rally held on Tuesday in the glittering lobby of Trump Tower in New York, The Donald was finally forced to admit that yes, the Russians had hacked the Democrats. He was, however, only willing to go so far. That’s because he knew the next step would be admitting that the Russians had done this hacking in order to help him win the presidency. And for Donald Trump, that truth is a bridge too far.

The tone of denial and ridicule that Mr. Trump had previously used when dealing with the question of a possible Russian hacking attack, he now reserved for the question about whether or not his aides had actually met with the Russians to possibly discuss the attacks on the Democrats and Hillary Clinton. What Mr. Trump does not seem to realize yet is that the truth will out, in one way or another. He would be wise to deal with the Russian involvement in a straightforward way or else it he will be forced to deal with it through comments made by unattributed sources or leaked reports of a questionable nature of the kind that we saw dominate the media on Monday and Tuesday.

But that may not be possible for Trump. It’s not how he sees the world. For Donald Trump winning the 2016 presidential election is not about being given a chance to govern but about WINNING! That’s why it was so hard for him to admit that the Russians had hacked the Democrats. Trump did not see the Russian maneuver as an attack on American sovereignty or attempt to disrupt democracy, he saw it as a way to help him WIN.

This attitude that winning is what the 2016 election was all about was obvious in Tuesday’s press conference. Trump sees his electoral college victory not as that above-mentioned opportunity to govern but as a final declaration: he won! Anything that questions that victory, or questions the decisions that he will make over the next four years are illegitimate in his view. This is why he was so dismissive of the media. During the 2016 campaign, he had largely play the media for suckers. Now that he has triumphed, however, they are no longer needed. Now they are just annoying. And their tough questions were just ignored or ridiculed.

Although he will not be president for another week, Donald Trump telegraphed in his press conference that his presidency he will be more in the vein of Turkey’s Erdogan or Venezuela’s late ruler Chavez, rather than in the style of previous Republican and Democratic presidents.

Perhaps he will change. Perhaps Pres. Obama’s comments that, once a person assumes the presidency it changes them, will come true. That they become more serious and focused on governing. Maybe Trump will learn to be less combative with the media, and understand that it is the job of the media in a democracy to constantly question those in a position of power. That it’s not personal. That it is part of the job. Perhaps he will learn that opponents in the political sphere – Democrat OR Republican – are not “losers”, but people who care deeply about this country and will fight hard to keep it on an even keel. Perhaps he will learn, as my mother used to say, you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar and that working with people is a better strategy than ridiculing them.

Then again. He may learn nothing. He may remain an ill-tempered, egotistical, small-minded cretin who still sees important issues not as ways to improve the country but as ways that he can WIN! Only time will tell. And what it is telling us so far is not very promising.